Home in the Oklahoma Hills’

The George Kaiser Family Foundation intends to open the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsas Brady District by the end of 2012. The foundation has purchased the folk singer and activists comprehensive archives  including hundreds of notebooks, diaries and scrapbooks containing letters, 581 artworks, novels, essays, unpublished short stories and lyrics to some 3,000-plus songs  from the Guthrie family for $3 million.

For the planned center, a kickoff celebration is slated for March 10 that will feature Woodys son Arlo and other musicians.

Even years after succumbing to Huntingtons disease in 1967, the Dust Bowl troubadour remained a polarizing figure in Oklahoma for his supposed commie leanings. It wasnt until 1998 that the first Woody Guthrie festival was hosted in his hometown of Okemah, and 2006 that Guthrie was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.